"Even a blind squirrel finds a nut from time to time" is in fact a common American idiom. However, it is based on some mistaken beliefs considering that squirrels have an excellent sense of smell and would probably have no problem finding food even if they were blind.
Answer one question: In countries you consider soccer culture nations how is the women's game treated (is it followed)?
horribly!! i don't think i've said that the popularity of the game is not AN important part of culture. but i rate the ability to transfer skills & tactics effortlessly from generation to generation (especially in the context of this thread's discussion of the japanese and spanish u20 women's playing ability) as maybe more crucial - as in spain, where they're now paying more attention to woso and have shot up the youth ranks.
rant understood and accepted. I suspect that we each put different weights on public acceptance and popularity of woso when compared to a society's understanding and easy transference of the key skills of the game.
Many/most of the countries that have a "real" soccer culture are also "macho" countries so the women's game is not well received at all. Even some of those, like Mexico or Brazil, that are having some success in women's soccer are not very supportive of the women's game. Before my final retirement a few year ago I was in Brazil and there was no women's league at all to speak of. They have since added one and the games are pretty good BUT the attendance is spotty at best. A friend of mine reported that recently there was a boys U14 being played near the same time and place as a women's league match between two of the better teams. The boys had an over 4-1 advantage in attendance. As mature as the women's game seems to have become world wide it is still the very rare "macho" culture that will accept the women as belonging in the men's world of soccer.
now your switching 'culture' to 'skills', but in Europe, those pro teams spend about 1% of their budget on their woso squads)so it's low pay coupled with very few that make their academy teams) soccer remains very popular in college/it's the 2nd biggest participation sport(team or individual). Don't know why other than bigger lineups, you think basketball is a way bigger draw(gate receipts/tv contracts), here are the figures http://www.scholarshipstats.com/soccer.html vs http://www.scholarshipstats.com/basketball.htm that's 11K more playing soccer & why college will still be the bread & butter for American woso, that's until the NWSL & the rest of the world will start paying better salaries for females, instead of the starting salary base of $8K for a full season(NWSL stat from a few years ago)
Today, I’m issuing “Bad A**” laminated cards and I.D. bracelets to Georgia Stanway and Sandy Baltimore.
Wow, thru 36', 0-0, Spain with good chance after great chance - nothing sloppy, putting the ball on frame. Then Japan #9 with the individual goal of the Tourney.1-0 Japan with all the MO now. - - - - HT
[Spain-Japan] 57' 0-2 Japan pass to #_ facing away at arc tangent left -- meanwhile, #11 Takarada is outrunning 2 through 25m mid-left. #_ juggles ball up to knee-height, dinks right foot mini-bike back-poke perfectly into Takarada's stride. Takarada touches to 9m 6-left, slides down to open hips, shoots right instep across mouth past Coll's dive, into back right low. Combinations in tight spaces, with off-ball runs, all executed at high speed. 65' 0-3 Takarada holds up at 15m wide right -- meanwhile, #10 Nagano makes her run through arc top mid-right. Takarada ground pass to 13m mid-right, Nagano runs on and one-touch shot right foot bends directly over Coll not quite ready, over her fingertips into back left high. 71' 1-3 Spain stymied down box right, backpass toward arc top box right misses, rolls back to 27m mid-right. One-touch high cross back into box toward 6m 1/3 left, #15 Candela back-cuts RB #13 Miyagawa and arrives first -- a rare miscue in the back. Candela one-touch grasstop volley to center low beats Stambaugh's sprawl. 73' 1-3 Pina turns at 9m mid-right, shoots rising over Stambaugh's fingertips, off crossbar 1/3 right, bounces back into the box and cleared.
88' 1-3 Japan right ck, ground cross to 12m 6-right, intercepted by Spain but not cleared. Japan's lone target in box promptly challenges her, pokes ball free , directly to Endo unmarked at 14m mid-right. Endo steps up, one-touch shot to 1/4 left just over bar, skims along top of net. +3'. FT 1-3. Congratulations to Japan. HC Ikeda stoically gives a small, satisfied nod
Your #_ was actually #19 Riko Ueki. Takarada deservingly won the MVP of the match award, the Bronze Shoe (on assists over team-mate Ueki) and the Silver Ball (ahead of Minami and behind Patri Guijarro of Spain), but I guess there were much more top Japanese players in this tournament than available individual awards. It's incredible that players like Fuka Nagano, Riko Ueki, Jun Endo leave this tournament with no individual recognition apart from a pair of MVP of the match awards! Oh, well, they come home with a Golden Medal and a World Cup anyway!
switching? then you haven't been reading my posts. my point has always been that size & numbers are only one part of culture. the most important part of culture if you want your team to really play the game is how ingrained the skills, nuances, & tactics of the game are, and how easily they are passed on from generation to generation - as in spain, for example.
From FoxSportsGo site: https://www.foxsportsgo.com/program/435673/2018-fifa-u-20-womens-world-cup-japan-vs-spain You will need to sign in with your "TV Provider" and <<it made me sign in Twice!?! for some reason but then worked fine>>
Japan is absolutely the best women's team Ive ever seen. A pleasure to watch their skill, passing, movement, understanding. The USA would be well advised to learn from them as theyre on a whole different level and way ahead of us
What do you say, his expression in the picture below is more like: "We've just won the World Cup!" or like: "Silly girls, why they do this? In the end we've only won a game."?
I think you're missing something. Over the last 30 years, for women's sports in the US there has been a massive cultural change. It isn't sport specific, it is for sports and physical self-confidence generally. As part of the aftermath of the passage of Title IX, the physical self-confidence and self-images of women playing sports have improved dramatically, I would say revolutionarily. For them, there's no longer a consideration that sports really are for men. Sports are equally for women, and female athletes = male athletes. There are very few other countries where this is the case, although I think Japan and Australia may be experiencing something similar. Your position is that because men's soccer has been central to other countries' cultures, that means that the women in those countries have soccer built into their cultural DNA. But you leave out that those women generally don't see themselves as athletes in the way that men are, and in particular don't see themselves as soccer athletes in the way that men are. In that situation, it's not logical to conclude that those women have soccer built into their cultural DNA in the way that men do. Why would they, they can't be "real" soccer players anyway. This may change, but it will take 20 to 30 years of mass women's participation in sports in those countries for it to happen, if male "macho-ness" will even allow it to happen.
you mentioned "Spain"(as having soccer culture/or doing it the right way) this one youtuber, posted a whole bunch of vids while his daughter played for a top notch select/ECNL club called De Anza Force 98(remember there's over 1000 individual ECNL teams, 98.99,00 eccedra), One of the highlights(a few years back) was a trip to Barcelona Spain, where they played & decimated the mostly Spanish opposition(until the close final). below here are highlights of that trip. Now I don't know exactly the quality of the Spanish squads(are they from BARCA/Real Madrid or just rec clubs?), but it's so obviously that De Anza looks way more advanced, skilled wise as well as the players in much better shape
i totally believe this. not fully the way that men do. but i think they inherit soccer iq and combine that with enough cultural dna from meso to give their girls a faster on ramp to success in spite of the macho nature of their surroundings. i do acknowledge that that macho culture in spain could tear away the foundations from their quickly improving girls’ game and send them back to square 1. but i don't think that’s going to happen. more likely, other soccer cultures, very slowly, see what spain is doing and bring their girls in too.
i see you’re back to numbers and size. numbers and size are important. but they are limited in terms of passing on the right skills, tactics and nuances of the game and developing a good soccer iq. in fact, in the case of the u.s., numbers and size might be a hindrance. i think this might prove my point. once spain began paying attention to their girls’ soccer, they improved so rapidly, that they are already at the same level or better than the u.s.
i think this might prove my point. once spain began paying attention to their girls’ soccer, they improved so rapidly, that they are already at the same level or better than the u.s.[/QUOTE] Spain made it to finals of the u17 World Championships one year later after DeAnza Force 98 obliterated their u16 clubs(as shown in the video)
It shows how crappy our girls youth national teams are and how bad our "best" coaches are at identifying and nurturing top talent. Unless participation has gone up radically in the past 3-4 years, Japan has something like 30-50,000 females playing organized soccer. That is at all ages and all levels of seriousness. Countries like North Korea have literally dozens of girls being given serious training, and yet those dozens of girls are typically as good or better than the all stars from 100s of "serious" American teams. I don't know much about women's soccer in Spain, but it looks like something similar is going on. You have 1000s-10,000s of girls total playing soccer in the entire country, most of them paying at a ridiculously low level and yet from that small number of mostly useless players Spain is somehow able to select squads that can compete with the US.